A Self-Portrait That Will Draw You In by James Finneral

            Last Friday we visited the oldest of the Harvard Art Museums, the Fogg Museum. The Fogg Museum opened in 1896 and is run by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a wide variety of art in the museum ranging from objects from ancient times to paintings that were created within the last century. A painting that caught my eye instantly when I entered a gallery on the first floor was Self-Portrait in Tuxedo by Max Beckmann. Beckmann was born in 1884 and worked in many different mediums such as painting, sculpture and printmaking. He was known for the many self-portraits he created in the early 1900’s. Beckmann created this particular self-portrait in 1927, but did not open it to the public until 1928.

            Beckmann uses oil on canvas for this painting and uses thick paint which creates large planes of color. The image consists of Beckmann in a tuxedo staring directly at the viewer. He has a very blank, but serious facial expression. He appears to be in a dark restaurant or cafe and has a cigarette in his hand. There is a window in the background, but it is completely fogged giving the portrait an even more dim feeling. Beckmann’s pose is very interesting where his left arm is bent and is holding the cigarette while his right hand is against his hip. This pose looks a little awkward, but it also makes Beckmann look more serious.

            The impressive aspect about this painting is Beckmann’s use of color to create shadows. The most obvious example is in his face where Beckmann used white on one side of his face to show some sort of light shining on him and then uses a type of brown towards the middle of his face to show a shadow. Another example is his hands where the back of his hand is white and his fingers are a shade of brown. The use of shadow Beckmann provides gives the self-portrait an even more of an intense feeling. I also enjoy how this portrait fits right in with the style of his other self-portraits. After researching Beckmann I realized he has done many self portraits at many different locations. They all contain the same theme of him never smiling. From his paintings that I have seen I would infer that Beckmann was not a very cheerful person. I enjoy how he is not afraid to show his own personality through his work. I recommend stopping by the Fogg Museum and I guarantee this painting will draw you in.